A Los Angeles Highway Fiery Crash Killed 1 And Injured 12

According to officials, one person died while 12 were injured after several cars collided and caught fire on the 5 Freeway close to Griffith Park, which led to a full shutdown of all lanes heading south on Tuesday.

A fiery crash:

The California Highway Patrol said that numerous agencies answered to the Golden State Freeway which is close to Los Feliz Boulevard right before 11 am as reports of a pileup that caught fire on the side headed south came flooding.

A minimum of six vehicles were involved in the crash, including a couple of commercial trucks, according to Andy Fox from the Los Angeles Fire Department. When firefighters arrived at the incident site, they saw that a lot of cars had caught on fire.

According to Fox, a total of 75 firefighters were on the scene to extinguish the fire, they came from fire departments located in Glendale, Burbank, and Los Angeles.

Casualties:

During a news conference that was held in the early afternoon, Fox said that a total of 12 people were treated, and 1 person died on the scene. A dog also died due to the accident.

One person, in critical condition, was rushed to the hospital. While nine sustained more minor injuries were also taken to the hospital.

Right before 11:30 am, video footage from Sky5 indicated that paramedics set up a triage at the site of the crash, several people were seen getting treated for their injuries.

According to authorities, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office was also present at the scene, it’s his job to determine the identity of the individual that passed away as well the cause of death. It’s so far unknown which vehicle the victim was riding.

Due to the huge amount of wreckage and debris that stretch on both sides of the highway, cleaning up the roads might take hours.

A big rig, which contained mils, was fully destroyed in the fire. The vehicle’s burnt out body stayed in the middle of the road over two hours after the crash.

The second commercial vehicle that was involved in the crash, which was a tanker truck, hit a big rig and as a result became badly damaged.

The explosion that was caused by the crash made columns of dense, black smoke which was seen for miles.

Oil was spilled on the road by one of the vehicles from the crash, which prompted a team for hazardous material to show up and clean the site.

According to a news conference given by CHP Officer Ryan Bejar, all lanes heading south have been closed until further notice, while only two lanes on the side heading north were operational.

The exact amount of time the lanes would be closed is unknown, but Bejar estimated that it could stay for four hours.

The cause of the crash is still unknown as it’s still under investigation.